Time magazine has named a 15-year-old scientist ‘Kid of the Year’ after he devised a skin cancer-treating soap
Heman Bekele, a 15-year-old from Virginia, US, has been honoured by Time magazine for his pioneering work and research into skin cancer treatment.
Heman was four years old when he started conducting his own science experiments at home, creating concoctions with whatever he could find. At six, he was given a chemistry set for Christmas, helping Bekele to the realisation that he wanted to help the world in some way using science.
He grew up in Ethiopia, witnessing first-hand the damaging effects of the sun, particularly on labourers, who often work in the blistering sun without skin protection. Bekele was shocked to realise that the cost of skin cancer treatment for those without insurance could be up to $42,000 (£32,000). It became his mission to come up with a more affordable treatment.
After reading about imiquimod, a drug used to treat certain types of skin cancer that usually comes as a cream, Bekele thought a bar of soap – simple and affordable – could in fact be the drug’s perfect vehicle. Aimed at patients in the early stages of the illness, he resolved that the soap would be not only cost-effective, but more easily accessible too.
In 2023, Bekele applied for 3M’s Young Scientist Challenge and was invited to deliver his pitch to a panel of judges. He was declared the winner, receiving $25,000 (£19,000). Months later at a networking event, Bekele met his current lab partner, Vito Rebecca, a molecular biologist and assistant professor, who had read about Bekele’s work and found the teen inspiring. The two are now researching the effects of the soap at a Johns Hopkins University laboratory in the US, with the young scientist juggling the work with his classroom studies.
He’s come up with a way to combine the soap with a lipid-based nanoparticle that remains on the skin when the soap is washed away. “I’m really passionate about skin-cancer research,” he told Time magazine, “whether it’s my own research or what’s happening in the field. It’s absolutely incredible to think that one day my bar of soap will be able to make a direct impact on somebody else’s life. That’s the reason I started this all in the first place.”
Whether it’s my own research or what’s happening in the field, it’s absolutely incredible to think that one day my bar of soap will be able to make a direct impact on somebody else’s life
Alongside Rebecca and his parents, Bekele is also supported by Deborah Isabelle, his 3M mentor, who says how fortunate she was to be paired with him, “an incredible, passionate, very inspiring young man”.
“A lot of people have this mindset that everything’s been done, there’s nothing left for me to do,” he told Time magazine. “To anybody having that thought, [I’d say] we’ll never run out of ideas in this world. Just keep inventing. Keep thinking of new ways to improve our world and keep making it a better place.”
Photography by Dina Litovsky for TIME, for How We Chose TIME’s 2024 Kid of the Year
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